Probably. We have a pond with three pools separated by weirs. About four years ago, I cleaned our pond removed; everything and scrubbed. We purchased about a dozen $0.26 feeder fish. Only four survived the winter. The next spring I did some minor repairs and started the pump. It ran about two weeks, and then I shut it down as we took a long vacation. When we returned from vacation we had hundreds of babies, in all three pools. From the first four that survived the winter we have about 70 fish in the three pools today. The original four are over 8" long. They reproduce every spring.

I really like them. Hopefully in the future I will be able to put in a bigger pond and I can try again with the Golden Orfes and do it right by getting about 5 or 6. For now I am going to pass on them as I see the advice the guy in the pond store told me that one was good, was wrong. Meantime I rewarded myself by going back to the pond store and buying two new fish. I got a stunner of a butterfly koi in a strange metalic almost mustard old gold color. I know that might not sound attractive but the fish is lovely. Also a most beautiful deep almost red "goldfish" with the most long, long, long tail and fins.

Also a Mom on three--though mine are a bit older than yours at 17, 15 and 9. Especially when kids were little I didn't really do much decorating per sae. I mostly focused on having a safe home and adequate storage spaces for all of the kids' various toys, games, arts&crafts, etc. so that the house was not a den of clutter. As they got older, toys gravitated into the bedrooms and we decided to remodel our house 4-years ago. It was only after moving back and many of the previous furniture was sold or donated that I felt more free to begin decorating. As I had both family room and living room, I used the living and dining room as places to finally give reign to my decorating bent. I thought the family room would be more functional and family friendly and it is; it took me a while to see that I could have a balance between the family friendly and stylish. I try to choose fabrics and rugs that hold up well to the inevitable messes that even teenagers make. Oxyclean is my best friend! Even the teenagers will get pen and sharpie marks on the sofa if they sit there and study, but I don't like alternative of religating them to their rooms all the time. I have an inexpensive storage ottoman that is a great place to store all the puzzles and games, which my 17-year-old DS loves to sit on and play video games. While it's nice to having activities accessible for the children, it's also good for them to learn to pick up after themselves in the common areas of the home. I guess our main compromise was after the toddler stage, the kids were expected to keep their toys in their rooms though family activities (like games, puzzles, art supplies) were kept in the great room (we have open family kitchen dining area). While they could make messes in their rooms and even leave them out awhile, I expected them to cleanup in the family room as I didn't want to be tripping over a lot of clutter. I don't go in for a lot of nicknacks...only adds to the clutter IMHO. Before I had a lot of small stuff which I realize how were just dusy magnets, now I go in for fewer, larger items. I shop at places like TJ Maxx so that nothing I leave out is an heirloom. Even though my kids are past the toddler stage, we do have families with toddlers visit on occasion and I do not want my home seen as a touch me not home. I keep two storage bins of toys in my hall closet so when children come to visit, I can usually distract them with that so they leave my things alone. I've only recently started using a cloth tablecloth on the table after many years of using vinyl. When I tell the kids to have neater table manners and not get the tablecloth dirty, my 17-year-old would say, wny not just use the vinyl one and wipe up? I told him, it's time to learn neater table manners. I think if we have some nice things in our homes then kids learn to respect and take care instead of treating the home like a jungle gym and it's am important skill for them to learn as they grow older and go visit other peoples' home--to not sit on the armrests of the sofas or put their feet up on the coffee table.

That first photo is fantastic! They are all good, but #1 is special. The fish photo tells a great story. You can see by the look in his eyes he wants grandpa's praise for catching that fish;~)